“It’s an unhappy race in an unhappy country” opened New York Times opinion columnist Bret Stephens, “each side of the country thinks that if the other half wins, it’s somehow, in one form or the other, the end of America.” A sense of gravity and...
State & Hill sat down with the Ford School’s new dean to reflect on her scholarship, her mentors, and Gerald Ford
State & Hill: Tell us about your intellectual journey to leading the Ford School.
Celeste Watkins-Hayes: What you see in my...
On a Monday evening in late November, throngs of University of Michigan students, faculty, staff, and Ann Arbor residents waited expectantly outside the Michigan Theater to attend the premier showing of the film, “She Said.”
The movie chronicles...
The Ford School is pleased to announce an exciting lineup for the winter 2023 Policy Talks @ the Ford School series and other special public events hosted with partners from across campus.
Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise...
The Ford School’s Center for Racial Justice proudly welcomes Atinuke (Tinu) Adediran, Makeda Easter, and Julian Brave NoiseCat as inaugural Visiting Fellows for the 2022-23 academic year.
The visiting fellows program recognizes and supports the...
U.S. democratic institutions are under attack. While law enforcement agencies and a Congressional committee still work to investigate the January 6, 2021, attacks on the Capitol – political violence aimed at blocking or overturning the results of...
Highlights from “Covering 9/11: How the attacks shaped our world today,” a conversation with journalists Beth Fertig of WNYC (and U-M alum) and nationally-syndicated columnist Aisha Sultan (and former Knight Wallace Fellow), at the annual Josh...
The events of 9/11 touched the Ford School directly, with the death of Josh Rosenthal, a 1979 University of Michigan graduate, who in 2001 was 44 years old and worked as a senior vice president at The Fiduciary Trust, which had its offices on the...
Rackham Auditorium
915 E. Washington St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
In partnership with Wallace House, award-winning journalist Kara Swisher discusses her newly released “Burn Book: A Tech Love Story,” her account of the tech industry and its founders who wanted to change the world but broke it instead.
Watch live from this page
University of Michigan Martin Luther King, Jr. Symposium
Join New York Times journalist and author Rachel Swarns as she discusses her book The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold To Build the American Catholic Church, a story of servitude and slavery spanning nearly two centuries and detailing the beginnings of Georgetown University and the U.S. Catholic Church. Swarns's journalism started a national conversation about universities with ties to slavery.
Literati Bookstore
124 E. Washington St.
Ann Abor MI 48104
Literati Bookstore is proud to welcome Laura Meckler to present and discuss her book Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity. This event is presented in collaboration with Wallace House Center for Journalists, Education Policy Initiative, Center for Racial Justice, Youth Policy Lab, and The Department of English Language and Literature at The University of Michigan.
Join for an important discussion on the complicated issue of race and policing in the United States, featuring New York Times Contributor Jessica Jaglois, and Director of Arts and Culture for the City of Detroit, Rochelle Riley.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer will visit campus for a special event alongside CNN Anchor Chris Wallace as part of an ongoing partnership between the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, Wallace House Center for Journalists, and U-M Democracy & Debate. The hour-long fireside chat between Governor Whitmer and Wallace will focus on politics, public service, and the media.
University of Michigan Martin Luther King, Jr. Symposium
Wallace House Presents journalist and educator Jelani Cobb, in conversation with Ford School Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes to look at the historic challenges to democracy that centered around race, the impact of the media, and how this frames and informs the current moment.
University of Michigan Martin Luther King, Jr. Symposium
Wallace House presents educator and writer for The New York Times Magazine, Linda Villarosa, as she examines racial health disparities in America and the toll racism takes on individuals and the health of our nation.
In October 2017, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey of The New York Times broke the story of Harvey Weinstein’s decades of sexual abuse allegations and ignited the #metoo movement. Meet the reporters behind the groundbreaking expose and watch the feature film, “She Said,” based on their book of the same name. A conversation with Kantor and Twohey will follow the movie screening.
Author, Senate commentator, and former Hill staffer Ira Shapiro joins congressional ethics and accountability reporter for CQ Roll Call, Chris Marquette, for a discussion on Shapiro's new book, The Betrayal: How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America, our current political climate, and the state of democracy in these fractious times.
Wallace House presents Knight-Wallace journalists who have reported extensively from Ukraine and a U-M policy expert as they examine Putin’s suppression of a free press, the call for direct military support, and the geopolitical, economic and humanitarian consequences of the growing conflict.
Pulitzer Prize winning historian, journalist and commentator Anne Applebaum delivers the keynote lecture of the spring 2022 Democracy in Crisis series, in conversation with Dean Michael S. Barr.
Hear from Sarah Kendzior, author of Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America, as part of the spring 2022 Democracy in Crisis series.
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author Barton Gellman in conversation with Michigan Law Professor from Practice Barbara McQuade, as part of the spring 2022 Democracy in Crisis series.
Weill Hall, Betty Ford Classroom (1110)
(Also available virtually)
Join to hear from TIME National Political Correspondent Molly Ball in conversation with longtime political writer Craig Gilbert to kick off the Spring 2022 Democracy in Crisis series.
Amid continuing uncertainties around the U.S. retreat from Afghanistan, journalists Robin Wright and Jawad Sukhanyar will give their perspectives on the evolving situation, in conversation with Lynette Clemetson, Director of Wallace House.
Josh Rosenthal Education Fund Lecture,
Policy Talks @ the Ford School
The world we live in is still shaped in many ways by the events of September 11, 2001. Join us for a special retrospective on 9/11 with journalist Beth Fertig of WNYC and Aisha Sultan, a nationally syndicated columnist.
Majora Carter is a real estate developer, urban revitalization strategy consultant, MacArthur Fellow, and Peabody Award winning broadcaster. As part of the Real-World Perspectives on Poverty Solutions fall 2020 speaker series,
she discusses "Community as Corporation: Talent Retention in Low-Status America."
For almost two decades, The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has traveled the globe to put human faces on the devastating problems plaguing the planet — from disease and poverty to violence and exploitation — and on the efforts of individuals and organizations to repair it.
Join Wallace House for a discussion on negotiating with hostile actors, growing threats to journalists and aid workers both at home and abroad, and the safety measures they should undertake.
In July 2014 Washington Post journalist and former Tehran bureau chief, Jason Rezaian, was arrested by Iranian police on charges of espionage. What followed was a harrowing 544 day stint in an Iranian prison, and an extraordinary campaign led by his family, the Washington Post, and prominent journalism organizations for his release. Join Rezaian for a discussion on his book “Prisoner,” which details his 18-month imprisonment in a maximum security facility, his journey through the Iranian legal system and how his release became part of the Iran nuclear deal.
The Institute for Social Research and Wallace House Presents a conversation driven by journalism and social science in the run-up to the presidential election.